A shy maths graduate takes a holiday in Dinard before starting his first job. He hopes his sort-of girlfriend will join him, but soon strikes up a friendship with another girl working in ...
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Simple conversations engender complicated human interactions. Jeanne is open and even-tempered, a philosophy teacher at a lycée. Her fiancé is away and she doesn't want to stay at his messy... See full summary »
Director:
Éric Rohmer
Stars:
Anne Teyssèdre,
Hugues Quester,
Florence Darel
Felicie and Charles have a serious if whirlwind holiday romance. Due to a mix-up on addresses they lose contact, and five years later at Christmas-time Felicie is living with her mother in ... See full summary »
Director:
Éric Rohmer
Stars:
Charlotte Véry,
Frédéric van den Driessche,
Michel Voletti
In Paris outskirts Blanche, a young clerk, befriends Lea, a girl livelier than she is. Lea is going steady with Fabien who is a friend to Alexandre who is going steady with Adrienne but is ... See full summary »
Director:
Éric Rohmer
Stars:
Emmanuelle Chaulet,
Sophie Renoir,
Anne-Laure Meury
Sabine vows to give up married lovers, and is determined to find a good husband. Her best friend Clarisse introduces her to her cousin Edmond, a busy lawyer from Paris. Sabine pursues ... See full summary »
Director:
Éric Rohmer
Stars:
Béatrice Romand,
André Dussollier,
Féodor Atkine
It's July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and "empty", but this won't last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her...
Director:
Éric Rohmer
Stars:
Marie Rivière,
María Luisa García,
Vincent Gauthier
On lakeside summer holiday, a conflicted older man is dared to have a flirt with two beautiful teenage stepsisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter and the fact that the girls have boyfriends.
Reinette and Mirabelle are two young girls. Reinette lives in the countryside, Mirabelle in Paris. They meet during a holiday of Mirabelle in the country, when Reinette helps her to repair ... See full summary »
Louise, a young woman, who recently finished her studies in arts, is working as a interior decorator trainee. Playing the game of seduction, her life becomes more and more complicated.
In 1992, the socialist mayor of a little French town with the help of his contacts in Paris get the money to build a multimedia house. But the socialist party lose his majority in the ... See full summary »
A shy maths graduate takes a holiday in Dinard before starting his first job. He hopes his sort-of girlfriend will join him, but soon strikes up a friendship with another girl working in town. She in turn introduces him to a further young lady who fancies him. Thus the quiet young lad finds he is having to do some tricky juggling in territory new to him.Written by
Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Usually this movie is categorized as either a love story, comedy or drama. IMO it is all and none of these- for the simple reason that the plot does not really matter. What has impressed me about this movie is the realistic way the characters are portrayed. If in a Hollywood movie a character has merely two motivations acting on him this is already interpreted as a "highly complex personality". So the common movie shows characters with a 1D psyche which contradicts the many facets of Self and the elusive, fuzzy nature of personality that one usually has or experiences. On the other hand there are movies which emphasize the highly artistic side by stuffing in all kinds of metaphors, analogies, images, etc. While this might make for an interesting intellectual puzzle- to me itïs just dull because this avoids the medium's strength of portraying intense situations. Just like a book written in Latin: it can be fun deciphering it- but it certainly does not make a good read. With these extremes out of the way- back to _Conte d'ete_. It's presented in a diary-like way with the protagonist either on his own or in company of one of the girls he is in love with. There are a few group scenes but thankfully they are rare and the main focus is on dialogues between the different personalities. All of the characters appear convinced of having a static self at the time of speaking. Yet throughout the movie one can see quite rapid changes going on which, just as in real life are not completely directed at a specific goal (IMO linear character development only takes place in bad short stories). So while each character remains mostly unaware about his/her individual changes they are made obvious by the characters describing each other. The dialogues are extremely lifelike- with all the mechanisms of exaggerating, rationalizing, white lies, etc.
What makes this movie a piece of art instead of just a diary film adaption is the timelessness with which it is presented. The images and characters are somewhat blurred or softened (_not_ in a visual sense!) as a fading memory might be. There are dates inserted every few minutes giving the plot a duration of about two weeks. Had this not been done it would be hard to tell whether the time span covered is 3 days or 3 years. Despite having an elaborate personality the characters at the same time remain general (archetypical, if you will) and personally I find it very easy to identify friends with these characters- which IMO is intended.
To sum it up, I see this movie as an evocative exercise in applied psychology reflecting or focusing life towards the audience. While there are some recurring commentaries the film is for the most part free of moral judgement.
There are two points of negative critic: - the otherwise excellent acting (which does not look like acting) is limited by the somewhat uninspired gestures of the main actor (Melvil Poupaud). - the Deus Ex Machina ending which is used to finish an otherwise endless story
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Usually this movie is categorized as either a love story, comedy or drama. IMO it is all and none of these- for the simple reason that the plot does not really matter. What has impressed me about this movie is the realistic way the characters are portrayed. If in a Hollywood movie a character has merely two motivations acting on him this is already interpreted as a "highly complex personality". So the common movie shows characters with a 1D psyche which contradicts the many facets of Self and the elusive, fuzzy nature of personality that one usually has or experiences. On the other hand there are movies which emphasize the highly artistic side by stuffing in all kinds of metaphors, analogies, images, etc. While this might make for an interesting intellectual puzzle- to me itïs just dull because this avoids the medium's strength of portraying intense situations. Just like a book written in Latin: it can be fun deciphering it- but it certainly does not make a good read. With these extremes out of the way- back to _Conte d'ete_. It's presented in a diary-like way with the protagonist either on his own or in company of one of the girls he is in love with. There are a few group scenes but thankfully they are rare and the main focus is on dialogues between the different personalities. All of the characters appear convinced of having a static self at the time of speaking. Yet throughout the movie one can see quite rapid changes going on which, just as in real life are not completely directed at a specific goal (IMO linear character development only takes place in bad short stories). So while each character remains mostly unaware about his/her individual changes they are made obvious by the characters describing each other. The dialogues are extremely lifelike- with all the mechanisms of exaggerating, rationalizing, white lies, etc.
What makes this movie a piece of art instead of just a diary film adaption is the timelessness with which it is presented. The images and characters are somewhat blurred or softened (_not_ in a visual sense!) as a fading memory might be. There are dates inserted every few minutes giving the plot a duration of about two weeks. Had this not been done it would be hard to tell whether the time span covered is 3 days or 3 years. Despite having an elaborate personality the characters at the same time remain general (archetypical, if you will) and personally I find it very easy to identify friends with these characters- which IMO is intended.
To sum it up, I see this movie as an evocative exercise in applied psychology reflecting or focusing life towards the audience. While there are some recurring commentaries the film is for the most part free of moral judgement.
There are two points of negative critic: - the otherwise excellent acting (which does not look like acting) is limited by the somewhat uninspired gestures of the main actor (Melvil Poupaud). - the Deus Ex Machina ending which is used to finish an otherwise endless story